


A Collection of Essays

by dragon_boogies



Category: Original Work
Genre: Beyonce - Freeform, Essays, Mind Reading, Opinion, Original work - Freeform, weekly journal writing, who would i like to be for a day
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-16
Updated: 2016-02-16
Packaged: 2018-05-21 03:03:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6035497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragon_boogies/pseuds/dragon_boogies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In my Literature class, the teacher has us write a weekly journal writing based on a topic she gives us. </p>
<p>Everything, minus the topics, belongs to me.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Week One

**Author's Note:**

> Topic: Complete the following statement and explain your answer: If I could be a famous person for a day, I think I’d like to be. . .

If I could be a famous person for a day, I would like to be Beyoncé. Now, I don’t listen to Beyoncé’s music a lot, but it’s a generally accepted fact in my generation that Beyoncé is queen, and I would love to be a queen for a day. Who wouldn’t? As for what I’d do during my set day of being queen, I would do queenly things. I’d also follow myself on social media. I would also set up a meeting with Tyler Oakley because it would make both of our dreams come true. Additionally, I would pay for my college education. Plus, I would put on a concert. It doesn’t even have to be a scheduled concert, I just would love to get up and perform music in front of a crowd. It’s a dream of mine. If the concert did happen to be scheduled, I would use the proceeds gained from the concert and bribe whoever decides what Oscar is given to who to give Leonardo Di Caprio an Oscar. That man deserves it. So, overall, I would like to be Beyoncé for a day because it would fulfill some of my dreams and a few others’ dreams as well, and my actions as Beyoncé would reflect those dreams.


	2. Week Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Topic: Agree or disagree and tell why: curfews are ridiculous. Young people over the age of 13 should be able to decide for themselves what time to come home.

Young people are not always at the same maturity level. To say that all 13-year-olds can/can’t have a curfew is a massive generalization. 13-year-olds should discuss with their parents about curfews. It’s not fair to the mature 13-year-olds to have a curfew of 6 p.m. every night, just like it’s not fair to the less mature 13-year-olds to have virtually no curfew. It’s both a yes and a no question. 

Also, there’s some other aspects to consider besides maturity levels. For instance, when I was 13, I didn’t have a curfew. It wasn’t so much because my parents thought that I was mature, but because I only left my house to go to slumber parties or play in pep band at a basketball or football game. Other than that, I basically never left my house.   
Personally, I disagree with the statement “curfews are ridiculous”. Curfews are a good idea; I just think that it’s a terrible idea to enforce a curfew at the same time on everyone. Young people shouldn’t just decide whenever to come home, but then again parents shouldn’t say, “be home at ____ time or else”, provided that the 13-year-old in question has proved his/herself to be responsible. It should be a mutual decision, not one-sided.


	3. Week Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Topic: Suppose you, and only you, had the power to read people’s minds. What problems can you imagine? What advantages would you have over others? Do you think you would like having such a power? Explain why or why not?

I can imagine several problems stemming from becoming a mind-reader. Before I explain those problems, I should tell you that there are three main types of mind-reading. Type one would be reading peoples thoughts when you wish too, and only one person’s at once. Type two would be reading everyone’s thoughts all at once and all of the time. Type three would be to touch someone and be able to hear every thought that has ever crossed their mind.

With each type of mind reading come different problems. Take type one for example. Reading one person’s mind whenever you want seems like a good idea at first. However, when you think about it further, you realize the disadvantages of it. What if you hear something that you really didn’t want to hear? Somethings just aren’t meant for the ears of others, and to listen to them would be a severe and uncomfortable invasion of privacy. It’s just plain rude. Or, what if the things you hear are about you? Finding out what other people think of you can be shocking, flattering, frustrating, and embarrassing. Then again, knowing what people think of you could be an advantage. You don’t have to worry about whether so-and-so hates your guts, or whether your feelings for someone are mutual. You can just read their mind. Another advantage would be to be able to tell if people were lying or not. If someone says something suspicious, all you have to do is read their mind. You have a figurative polygraph in your head. 

With type two mind-reading, there are slightly different advantages and disadvantages. Some might think that reading everyone’s minds at all times would be more advantageous than reading just one person’s thoughts when you want: that way you know what literally everyone is thinking. It would be a great way to find out how different people think and how that sets them apart from the collective group in situations. Psychology could learn a lot from that. Along with the added advantages, there are also added disadvantages. Hearing everyone else’s thoughts plus your own could drive you insane: you would never be able to think properly without anyone interrupting you. Think of it this way. You’re in a crowded room full of people that are constantly talking and they never stop. I’m one of those people who can’t think with a lot of noise like that; personally, I would go crazy. It would definitely come in handy to be able to tune out what the other people were thinking, which brings up another problem with type two mind-reading: distance. If I’d go crazy in a crowded room, I can’t imagine how it would be with everyone in the entire world (and possibly universe) constantly chatting in your head. However, that disadvantage could be countered by having a certain radius around you, perhaps two miles, within which you could hear people’s thoughts. 

Type one and two mind-reading are similar to each other, but type three almost in its own category, and because of its differences it has dissimilar advantages and disadvantages. One disadvantage would be that basically hearing another person’s whole life story could theoretically take the same amount of time that it took for that person to live their life story. By then, depending on the ages of both me and the person in question, I would possibly be dead and the information that I learned wouldn’t be very helpful to me if I was dead. However, if the information was transmitted at a greatly accelerated pace and the process was complete in a matter of minutes, then the time issue would be solved. Of course, that brings in a whole new dilemma: actually comprehending the information. Towards the end of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, when the aliens ask the antagonist Irina Spalko what knowledge she wants to know, she says that she wants to learn everything. This was a fatal mistake, as her mind could not comprehend the amount of information she was given and it basically explodes because of that. I can barely comprehend my own thoughts, let alone someone else’s, and so learning what another person has thought all throughout their life would be mind-numbing, and acquiring that knowledge at an accelerated rate would be even worse. That’s just with one other person’s thoughts. Could you imagine doing that more than once? It would be atrocious. Another disadvantage, but also an advantage, depending on how you look at it, would be that there would be no way that you would be able to remember all of that information, so you would definitely forget at least some of it. It seems a bit counterproductive to go through all of the trouble of acquiring that knowledge, only to not remember it. Then again, it does possibly save your mind from metaphorically or even literally exploding. Despite the disadvantages of type three mind-reading, there are some advantages. Like type two, learning what one person has thought throughout their life would be helpful to psychology. If I had type three mind-reading and I sat down with a person who identified with each of the 16 types of personalities according to Myers and Briggs, they could theoretically add evidence to support the theory. It would also establish the differences between each of the proposed 16 types of people and how they react to situations. I could also help science understand people with schizophrenia and other neurotic conditions. We could better understand what makes them tick, and we could hopefully figure out better treatments for them. Being a type three mind-reader could also help society as a whole, and not just science. One example of how it could help would be in dealing with criminals. If I sat down with a known sociopath or psychopath I would be able to understand that mindset better, and if I sat down with multiple sociopathic or psychopathic people I could identify certain traits or quirks that they all had and possibly use them to identify other sociopaths or psychopaths within our society. That way we could stop people with murderous tendencies before they commit the crime. Of course, with this advantage comes a disadvantage. If I got inside of the head of a sociopath or psychopath, there’s a theoretical chance that I would become a sociopath or a psychopath myself, and if I was exposed to more than one that chance would theoretically increase.

When it comes down to it, mind-reading, no matter the type, has both advantages and disadvantages. Personally, if I had to choose between the three types of mind-reading, I would choose the third type. Yes, it is the most likely to kill me or turn me into a murderous sociopath or psychopath, but it would help society more than being one of the other types, in my opinion. That said, if I had a choice of being a mind-reader at all I decided long ago that I would not become one. Oddly enough, my decision wasn’t based on the advantages and disadvantages I have discussed so far. It was based on the two probable outcomes that I have predicted would happen if I did become a mind-reader. The first one would be that the government would kidnap me to try and figure out why I could read minds, and I would become a lab rat for their experiments. I do not wish for that to happen. The other outcome would be that I would use my powers to help the greater good, and while though at first I would possibly be hailed as a hero by some, others would consider me a villain and conspire against me. People would lose trust in me because reading minds is, like I said before, an invasion of privacy. Especially in our culture, privacy is very important. I would be the living equivalent of the NSA. Although some might trust me at first, they would most definitely end up distrusting me, suing me, and possibly killing me. That would most likely go for all three types of mind-reading. All in all, the disadvantages far outweigh advantages, and at the end of the day, like Cassius from Julius Caesar, I would rather die than see myself become one.


End file.
